FO by Sally: weeny soakers

Well I’ve still been really slack lately on the knitting front, but I am having my anatomy scan tomorrow and if I find out what colour to knit then I might get more enthusiastic!

In the meantime, E has been asking for me to make a soaker to fit her furreal kitten, one with a hole for a tail.  I mumbled that I’d do it and then promptly forgot about it, so Super Auntie Sally stepped in and whipped up this cute wee soaker in next to no time!

Its a punk knitters one that she has done on DPNs, and of course has a suitable hole for kitty’s tail.  Its purple cos E loves purple, and I suspect that it is actually Woolganic merino so Pippy kitty now has a very comfy and warm bottie!

When Auntie S delivered the wee soaker, E was so happy that Super Auntie sat down and whipped up this wee cutie for Duckie:

Duckie has featured here before, and is only 4 inches or so tall from toes to head, so this is one tiny soaker!  Again punk knitters style (I think!) on dpns, and Auntie S has even picked up stitches for the leg cuffs, which turn it into a weeny pair of shorties!

 

 

 

 

FO: Treliske booties

Ta daaaa!  I actually finished something and it only took me a week!  Ok so most people would probably knock these out in a night or two but I’m only knitting in short bursts.  These are nb size in Treliske organic merino, using the same Shepherd pattern booklet as for the lace and cable booties below (same basic pattern but the non-fancy version).  The ribbons are just for the pic (even though they look totally wonky!) and cos I wanted to see them “finished” but actually I will crochet a couple of chains because ribbons come undone too easily.

My kitty

I know I haven’t posted in ages, its because I haven’t been doing anything remotely crafty and have been lounging about with my nose in a book for the last month.  Well in several books really, I’ve been speeding through heaps lately!  Firstly it was the Twilight series which was ok but not good enough to make me a Twilight groupie, and then I picked up the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and got well and truly hooked on urban fantasy.  Then it was the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and I’m now just working through the last book of the Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance.  I can thoroughly recommend the books by the last three authors – I found them way better than the Stephanie Meyer books!  Then again they are written for adults, not teenagers, and aren’t all angsty teenage love and whiney teenage girls (hands up who found Bella incredibly irritating?).

Anyway, back to the crafty stuff.  Happily, last night I picked up the needles for the first time in weeks and cast on some bootees in Treliske organic 8ply merino.  Hopefully I’ll finish the first one tonight and then I’ll feel all motivated again.  I did need to find some motivation again because I’ve got an autumn baby to knit for!

In the meantime Mum has been busy making a costume for E, who has been obsessed with cats of late – well it makes a change from birds!  A while ago she borrowed a cat costume from the local toy library and she liked it so much that Mum decided to make something similar.

Posing with some friends:

Holding her tail:

FO: Surprise Bootees

 

Well I haven’t blogged in ages, largely because the knitting has all but ceased for the moment!  But I did finish these bootees a week or so ago, and I thought I’d better finally get around to posting about them.  The reason that the knitting isn’t happening, is because lately I have been battling morning sickness that is actually all day and all night sickness, and I simply haven’t had the motivation or energy to pick up the needles.  Plus I’ve been so tired that I’ve been going to bed at least an hour and a half early, which effectively cuts out my weekday knitting time too.   Yep I’m expecting a wee arrival in March next year   But I’m sure that soon enough I will want to be knitting again – I strongly suspect it will be all baby related though! 

Before the morning sickness misery kicked in I started a pair of wee bootees for my stash – I figure that if my wee addition doesn’t wear pink then they can be gifted to a bubba who does.  The pattern is from a Shepherd booklet, but the print quality is poor and its really hard to tell from the picture what the finished bootees look like.  I glanced at the pattern and figured that they would be some sort of lace so I just cast on and got going.  So I was rather surprised when I got to the ankle and discovered that there were cables between the lace!   Well that taught me to read a pattern through before starting!

The lace is sort of twisty too and looks a bit like holey wiggly cables.  They definately turned out a bit fancier than I expected, but the pattern was really easy (2 needles, sole up) and I will definately be using it again – which is good because if I had known that there were cables before I started, I probably wouldn’t have made them.  I also discovered that I like a garter stitch sole because then it can be easily stitched without a lumpy seam, its much tidier than a stocking stitch sole that has been seamed with mattress stitch.

Helping with Grandad’s birthday cake…

On Saturday E helpfully stirred the icing so that Nana could ice Grandad’s birthday cake.  And then she very helpfully cleaned up, the best way a 3 year old knows how!

 

My Barbie princess

E got yet another costume from Nana C in the weekend, this time its a princess dress based loosely on a Barbie dress worn by one of E’s dolls.  Naturally it is purple    The gold fabric has a kind of purple sheen too. 

It fits E perfectly and she loves it, she even wore it to Mainly Music yesterday.  Because its ok to do that sort of thing when you are 3.  Of course it is still cold, so she is wearing a skivvy too.  And a tiara, because all every princess should have a tiara.

Traditional Auckland kid photo

Is there anyone (who isn’t ancient) who grew up in Auckland and doesn’t have a photo like this one?  There can’t be many people who don’t!  I love that the zoo has kept the dragon all these years

E and her kitties

FO: Calorimetry, again

Yes its another Vintage Hues Calorimetry.  I love this pattern, and it always comes out great in this yarn!  I used my usual mods, 5.5mm needles, CO 80 stitches, decrease to 28.

I do have something else on my needles, but its for Mum for christmas so I probably shouldn’t show it.

Mid Winter Secret Santa

Yep, its that time of the year again!  I received my secret santa gift in the mail yesterday (THANKYOU MEL?), I got this gorgeous hat and scarf set (kindly modelled by E) and some DIVINE home-made rocky road with lots of coconut and pecans in it… mmmmmmmmm.  I would be asking my santa for the recipe only I just started Weight Watchers last week so I probably shouldn’t.  But rocky road is mostly marshmallow right?  And marshmallow isn’t many points, right?

Obviously when I wear the hat the ribbed brim isn’t quite so wide!  but its really stretchy and actually fits E nicely as well as me   I had hinted that I’d love a beanie to wear when feeding out to my horses every night in winter – it gets pretty darn chilly out in the cold winter evenings, and in the rain and wind.  So I’m stoked with this lovely set, its very soft and warm – and of course I never get around to knitting anything  just for me!!!   I don’t know what the yarn is, it definately isn’t pure wool cos its really really soft and not prickly at all and I am really really fussy when it comes to scarf yarn!   So is E, she is a total fussypants when it comes to scratchy yarn, but she wore this set for at least 45mins this morning quite happily and only took it off when she was hot, so it gets her vote of approval too.  I haven’t yet found a 8ply yarn that I like for scarves, so I’m hoping my santa will tell me what this stuff is so that I can get some (I’m thinking it might make a nice Ocean Waves Scarf).

I particularly liked this posey pic of E doing her modelling thang:

 

Now I haven’t shown what I did for my secret santa gift, because I never got around to photographing it.  I made 3 incredibly ugly but very functional Grandmother’s Favourite dishcloths (the yarn was ugly, not the pattern) and a Vintage Hues Calorimetry, which looked very similar to the one pictured below.  Only wasn’t that one.  But was the same yarn. (ha ha, doesn’t E look so young in that old pic?!)

 

Oh and I added some yummy-smelling hand cream and a teacup and coaster set and some herbal tea

 

Oh, and while I’m here, my online buddy Sheryl is doing a giveaway on her blog, which you  should go and check out here (yes I’m shamelessly mentioning it here so that I can get two entries).